Editing Thomas Hardy (section)

==Life and career==
=== Early life ===
[[File:2780theHardyTreeOldStPancrasChurchyard.jpg|thumb|"The Hardy Tree", a [[Great Trees of London|Great Tree of London]] in [[St Pancras Old Church|Old St Pancras]] churchyard in London, growing between gravestones moved while Hardy was working there. The tree fell in December 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Matt |date=2022-12-28 |title=The Hardy Tree Of St Pancras Has Fallen |url=https://londonist.com/london/latest-news/the-hardy-tree-of-st-pancras-has-fallen |access-date=2022-12-28 |website=Londonist}}</ref>]]
Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June 1840 in Higher Bockhampton (then Upper Bockhampton), a hamlet in the parish of [[Stinsford]] to the east of [[Dorchester, Dorset|Dorchester]] in Dorset, England, where his father Thomas (1811–1892) worked as a stonemason and local builder. His parents had married at [[Melbury Osmond]] on 22 December 1839.<ref>Copy of marriage certificate in Melbury Osmond parish church.</ref> His mother, Jemima (née Hand; 1813–1904),<ref>{{cite web |date=13 October 2006 |title=Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/oct/13/thomashardy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729175642/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/oct/13/thomashardy |archive-date=29 July 2017 |access-date=13 December 2016 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> was well read, and she educated Thomas until he went to his first school at Bockhampton at the age of eight. For several years he attended Mr. Last's Academy for Young Gentlemen in Dorchester, where he learned Latin and demonstrated academic potential.<ref>{{Citation |first=Claire |last=Tomalin |title=Thomas Hardy: the Time-torn Man |publisher=Penguin |year=2007 |pages=30, 36}}.</ref>

Because Hardy's family lacked the means for a university education, his formal education ended at the age of sixteen, when he became apprenticed to James Hicks, a local architect.<ref>{{Citation |last=Walsh |first=Lauren |contribution=Introduction |title=The Return of the Native, by Thomas Hardy |place=New York |publisher=Barnes & Noble |series=Classics |year=2005 |type=print}}.</ref> He worked on the design of the new church at nearby Athelhampton, situated just opposite [[Athelhampton House]] where he painted a watercolour of the Tudor gatehouse while visiting his father, who was repairing the masonry of the dovecote.

He moved to London in 1862 where he enrolled as a student at [[King's College London]]. He won prizes from the [[Royal Institute of British Architects]] and the [[Architectural Association School of Architecture|Architectural Association]]. He joined [[Arthur Blomfield]]'s practice as assistant architect in April 1862 and worked with Blomfield on Christ Church, East Sheen [[Richmond, London]] where the tower collapsed in 1863, and All Saints' parish church in [[Windsor, Berkshire]], in 1862–64. A [[reredos]], possibly designed by Hardy, was discovered behind panelling at All Saints' in August 2016.<ref>{{cite news|last=Flood|first=Alison|title=Thomas Hardy altarpiece discovered in Windsor church|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/16/thomas-hardy-altarpiece-discovered-in-windsor-church|access-date=17 August 2016|work=The Guardian|date=16 August 2016|archive-date=16 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816234632/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/16/thomas-hardy-altarpiece-discovered-in-windsor-church|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.windsorobserver.co.uk/news/14679029.Legendary_author_Thomas_Hardy_s_lost_contribution_to_Windsor_church_uncovered/|title=Legendary author Thomas Hardy's lost contribution to Windsor church uncovered|website=Royal Borough Observer|date=15 August 2016 |access-date=17 August 2016|archive-date=26 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826151838/http://www.windsorobserver.co.uk/news/14679029.Legendary_author_Thomas_Hardy_s_lost_contribution_to_Windsor_church_uncovered/|url-status=live}}</ref> In the mid-1860s, Hardy was in charge of the excavation of part of the graveyard of [[St Pancras Old Church]] before its destruction when the [[Midland Railway]] was extended to a new terminus at [[St Pancras railway station|St Pancras]].<ref name="cornerstone">{{cite journal |last=Burley |first=Peter |year=2012 |title=When steam railroaded history |journal=Cornerstone |volume=33 |issue=1 |page=9 }}</ref>

Hardy never felt at home in London, because he was acutely conscious of class divisions and his own feelings of social inferiority. During this time he became interested in social reform and the works of [[John Stuart Mill]]. He was introduced by his Dorset friend [[Horace Moule]] to the works of [[Charles Fourier]] and [[Auguste Comte]]. Mill's essay ''[[On Liberty]]'' was one of Hardy's cures for despair, and in 1924 he declared that "my pages show harmony of view with" Mill.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Keith |title=A Companion to Thomas Hardy |date=2009 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |page=55}}</ref> He was also attracted to [[Matthew Arnold]]'s and [[Leslie Stephen]]'s ideal of the urbane liberal freethinker.<ref>{{cite book |last=Widdowson |first=Peter |title=Thomas Hardy and Contemporary Literary Studies |date=2004 |publisher=Springer |page=132}}</ref>

After five years, concerned about his health, he returned to Dorset, settling in [[Weymouth, Dorset|Weymouth]], and decided to dedicate himself to writing.

=== Personal ===
[[File:Max Gate.jpg|thumb|Max Gate in 2015]]
In 1870, while on an architectural mission to restore the [[St Julitta's Church, St Juliot|parish church of St Juliot]] in Cornwall,<ref>Gibson, James (ed.) (1975) Chosen Poems of Thomas Hardy, London: Macmillan Education; p.9.</ref> Hardy met and fell in love with [[Emma Gifford]], whom he married on 17 September 1874, at St Peter's Church, [[Paddington]], London.<ref>Michael Millgate, ‘Hardy, Thomas (1840–1928)’, [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]], Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33708 accessed 7 Feb 2016]</ref><ref name="freebmd.org.uk">{{cite web |title=FreeBMD Home Page |url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201211091910/https://www.freebmd.org.uk/ |archive-date=11 December 2020 |access-date=22 May 2016 |website=freebmd.org.uk}}</ref><ref>Hardy, Emma (1961) Some Recollections by Emma Hardy; with some relevant poems by Thomas Hardy; ed. by Evelyn Hardy & R. Gittings. London: Oxford University Press</ref><ref>"Thomas Hardy – the Time-Torn Man" (a reading of [[Claire Tomalin]]'s book of the same name), [[BBC Radio 4]], 23 October 2006</ref> The couple rented St David's Villa, Southborough (now [[Surbiton]]) for a year. In 1885 Thomas and his wife moved into [[Max Gate]] in [[Dorchester, Dorset|Dorchester]], a house designed by Hardy and built by his brother. Although they became estranged, Emma's death in 1912 had a traumatic effect on him and Hardy made a trip to Cornwall after her death to revisit places linked with their courtship; his ''[[Poems 1912–13]]'' reflect upon her death. In 1914, Hardy married his secretary [[Florence Dugdale|Florence Emily Dugdale]], who was 39 years his junior. He remained preoccupied with his first wife's death and tried to overcome his remorse by writing poetry.

In his later years, he kept a [[Wire Fox Terrier]] named Wessex, who was notoriously ill-tempered. Wessex's grave stone can be found on the Max Gate grounds.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/30/biography.thomashardy “At home with the wizard”] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180217082546/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/30/biography.thomashardy |date=17 February 2018 }}. The Guardian, Retrieved 10 July 2019</ref><ref name="BBC100304">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/entertainment/days_out/thomas_hardy_stourhead.shtml |title=Wiltshire Days Out – Thomas Hardy at Stourhead |publisher=BBC |access-date=19 May 2014 |archive-date=9 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309014751/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/entertainment/days_out/thomas_hardy_stourhead.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1910 Hardy was appointed a Member of the [[Order of Merit]] and was also for the first time nominated for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]]. He was nominated again for the prize 11 years later and by 1927 had received a total of 25 nominations.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=28393 |date=8 July 1910 |page=4857}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=3892 |title=Nomination Database |date=April 2020 |access-date=14 June 2017 |archive-date=23 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923194359/https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=3892 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1923 he was one of the final candidates for the prize, but did not win.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Asaid |first=Alan |date=11 December 2012 |title=Yeats och Nobelpriset |url=https://www.kulturdelen.com/2012/12/11/yeats-och-nobelpriset/ |publisher=kulturdelen.com |language=sv}}</ref>

=== Hardy and the theatre ===
Hardy's interest in the theatre dated from the 1860s. He corresponded with various would-be adapters over the years, including [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] in 1886 and [[Jack Grein]] and Charles Jarvis in the same decade.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Thomas Hardy on Stage|last=Wilson|first=Keith|publisher=The Macmillan Press|year=1995|isbn=9780333598856|page=29}}</ref> Neither adaptation came to fruition, but Hardy showed he was potentially enthusiastic about such a project. One play that was performed, however, caused him a certain amount of pain. His experience of the controversy and lukewarm critical reception that had surrounded his and [[J. Comyns Carr|Comyns Carr]]'s adaptation of ''[[Far from the Madding Crowd]]'' in 1882 left him wary of the damage that adaptations could do to his literary reputation. So, in 1908, he so readily and enthusiastically became involved with a local amateur group, at the time known as the Dorchester Dramatic and Debating Society, but that would become [[the Hardy Players]]. His reservations about adaptations of his novels meant he was initially at some pains to disguise his involvement in the play.<ref>Wilson, Keith (1995). ''Thomas Hardy on Stage''. The Macmillan Press. p. 60. {{ISBN|9780333598856}}</ref> However, the international success<ref>Evans, Harold (1908). "A Souvenir of the Performances of the Play adapted from Mr. Thos. Hardy's Novel 'The Trumpet Major'". The Dorchester Debating and Dramatic Society.</ref> of the play, ''[[The Trumpet-Major|The Trumpet Major]]'', led to a long and successful collaboration between Hardy and the Players over the remaining years of his life. Indeed, his play ''[[The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall|The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at Tintagel in Lyonnesse]]'' (1923) was written to be performed by the Hardy Players.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dean|first=Andrew R|date=February 1993|title=The Sources of The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45274094|journal=Thomas Hardy Journal, the|volume=9|issue=1|pages=76–89|jstor=45274094}}</ref>

=== Later years ===
[[File:Florence Hardy at the seaside 1915.jpg|thumb|200px|Florence Hardy at the seashore, 1915]]

From the 1880s, Hardy became increasingly involved in campaigns to save ancient buildings from destruction, or destructive modernisation, and he became an early member of the [[Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings]]. His correspondence refers to his unsuccessful efforts to prevent major alterations to the parish church at Puddletown, close to his home at Max Gate. He became a frequent visitor at [[Athelhampton House]], which he knew from his teenage years, and in his letters he encouraged the owner, Alfred Cart de Lafontaine, to conduct the restoration of that building in a sensitive way.

In 1914, Hardy was one of 53 leading British authors—including [[H. G. Wells]], [[Rudyard Kipling]] and Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]—who signed their names to the "Authors' Declaration", justifying Britain's involvement in the [[First World War]]. This manifesto declared that the German invasion of Belgium had been a brutal crime, and that Britain "could not without dishonour have refused to take part in the present war."<ref>{{cite news |title=1914 Authors' Manifesto Defending Britain's Involvement in WWI, Signed by H.G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/10/british-authors-and-wwi-propaganda-manifesto-signed-by-h-g-wells-arthur-conan-doyle-rudyard-kipling.html |access-date=27 February 2020 |work=Slate |archive-date=27 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227070407/https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/10/british-authors-and-wwi-propaganda-manifesto-signed-by-h-g-wells-arthur-conan-doyle-rudyard-kipling.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Hardy was horrified by the destruction caused by the war, pondering that "I do not think a world in which such fiendishness is possible to be worth the saving" and "better to let western 'civilization' perish, and let the black and yellow races have a chance."<ref name="Sherman">{{cite book |last=Sherman |first=George William |title=The Pessimism of Thomas Hardy |date=1976 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |page=447}}</ref> He wrote to [[John Galsworthy]] that "the exchange of international thought is the only possible salvation for the world."<ref name="Sherman"/>

Shortly after helping to excavate the [[Fordington mosaic]], Hardy became ill with [[pleurisy]] in December 1927 and died at [[Max Gate]] just after 9&nbsp;pm on 11 January 1928, having dictated his final poem to his wife on his deathbed; the cause of death was cited, on his death certificate, as "cardiac syncope", with "old age" given as a contributory factor. His funeral was on 16 January at [[Westminster Abbey]], and it proved a controversial occasion because Hardy had wished for his body to be interred at Stinsford in the same grave as his first wife, Emma. His family and friends concurred; however, his executor, Sir [[Sydney Carlyle Cockerell]], insisted that he be placed in the abbey's famous [[Poets' Corner]]. A compromise was reached whereby his heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma, and his ashes in Poets' Corner.<ref>{{cite book |author=Bradford, Charles Angell |author-link=Charles Angell Bradford |title=Heart Burial |year=1933 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=London |isbn=978-1-162-77181-6 |page=246}}</ref> Hardy's estate at death was valued at [[Pound sterling|£]]95,418 ({{inflation|UK|95418|1928|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-5}}).<ref>From Probate Index for 1928: "Hardy O. M. Thomas of Max Gate Dorchester Dorsetshire died 11 January 1928 Probate London 22 February to Lloyds Bank Limited Effects £90707 14s 3d Resworn £95418 3s 1d."</ref>

Shortly after Hardy's death, the executors of his estate burnt his letters and notebooks, but twelve notebooks survived, one of them containing notes and extracts of newspaper stories from the 1820s, and research into these has provided insight into how Hardy used them in his works. The opening chapter of ''The Mayor of Casterbridge'', for example, written in 1886, was based on press reports of wife-selling.<ref name="BBC200803">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/homeground/archive/2003/thomas_hardy.shtml |title=Homeground: Dead man talking |date=20 August 2003 |work=BBC Online |access-date=2006-08-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040831225219/http://www.bbc.co.uk/homeground/archive/2003/thomas_hardy.shtml |archive-date=31 August 2004}}</ref> In the year of his death Mrs Hardy published ''The Early Life of Thomas Hardy, 1841–1891'', compiled largely from contemporary notes, letters, diaries and biographical memoranda, as well as from oral information in conversations extending over many years.

Hardy's work was admired by many younger writers, including [[D. H. Lawrence]],<ref>{{Citation |title=Study of Thomas Hardy and other essays |orig-year=1914 |editor-first=Bruce |editor-last=Steele |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1985 |isbn=0-521-25252-0 |chapter=Literary criticism and metaphysics}}.</ref> [[John Cowper Powys]] and [[Virginia Woolf]].<ref>"The Novels of Thomas Hardy", ''The Common Reader'', 2nd series.</ref> In his autobiography ''[[Good-Bye to All That]]'' (1929), [[Robert Graves]] recalls meeting Hardy in Dorset in the early 1920s and how Hardy received him and his new wife warmly, and was encouraging about his work.

Hardy's [[Thomas Hardy's Cottage|birthplace in Bockhampton]] and his house [[Max Gate]], both in Dorchester, are owned by the [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]].